Five Days in London

London is dense with history. Its self-consciousness as one of the oldest cities in the world is palpable, and each century that London has witnessed is like a layer that the traveler can peel back to reveal a previous age. The Westminster Abbey overwhelms, and the Tower of London is a delight.

Yet London is also vibrant, and very alive. In its convoluted winding streets are hundreds of things to do and places to see for every kind of traveler and resident. Walking through SoHo, strolling along the Thames, looking for good eats in Chinatown, or even just people-watching in the Tube will remind you that this has always been, still is, and probably always will be a city on the go.

Finally, for all the stereotypes about the English, Londoners are some of the kindest, most polite, and friendliest people I have met in my travels. I felt at home the minute I stepped off the plane. And when I stepped back on at the end of my trip, I knew I would soon be back.

Quick Tips:

Take a coat or an umbrella. It is going to rain, although when we went (the latter part of the summer), the rain was often barely more than a drizzle.

For the budget-concscious: When choosing accommodation, bear in mind the cost of transportation to get from your hotel to the sights you want to see. London is organized into concentric circular regions called Zones, with most of the tourist spots in Zone 1. Transportation within Zone 1 is cheapest; for each additional zone that you travel to, you will have to pay a little more. That being said, accommodation in Zone 1 is also the most expensive, and in the peak season you can find accommodation in London suburbia at half the price that you would pay for for a tiny cramped room in Zone 1. Do the math and decide which is most convenient and most cost-efficient for you.

Best Way To Get Around:

First, walk. Most of the sights listed in your travel guides are within walking distance of each other. Besides, only by walking will you serendipitously find excellent bookstores, interesting blue-plaque buildings, and delightfully cheap eateries.

Second, take the Tube. The Tube, the oldest underground system in the world, is extremely easy to master. The Tube does show its age, though. Among all the cities I have been to with underground train systems, only in London have I heard - twice in a single trip - the announcement over the loudspeaker that the train would be delayed because of "man under train." And I suppose only in London would such an announcement be met with nothing but a stoic raising of people's eyebrows.

The Tube may seem expensive if you look at rates for individual trips, but visitors to London can save a lot of money by purchasing one-day, three-day or seven-day tickets, available from any Tube station.

The Tower of London is 900 years old, and has, at various times, been a royal palace, a fortress, and a prison. We made it to the Tower in time for one of the Yeoman Warders' Tours. The yeoman warders are the official guards of the Tower of London: each of them has to have had at least 15 years (I think) of military service, and has to have shown loyalty to the queen, before one can be accepted as a warder. The warders, however, also act as tour guides to the castle, and what wonderful guides they are!

The warder who led our tour gave us an hour-long orientation walk of the castle, punctuated with theatrical and funny stories about the people who had lived, been imprisoned, been executed, or died there. It was a very good tour, and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I don't think our visit to the Tower would have been quite as good if we hadn't join the Yeoman Warder's Tour.

After the orientation walk, we went to see the Crown Jewels, and then some of the military exhibits. Particularly memorable were the prison in Beauchamp Tower (with prisoners' graffiti still preserved on the walls) and an exhibit about Guy Fawkes.

The tower began to close before we had managed to see the entire castle, but my husband comforted us by pointing out that this gave us a reason to come back and visit the tower again in the future. After leaving the tower, we walked along the bank of the Thames for a little bit, before heading back home.

The Tower of London is open Mondays to Fridays from 9am to 9pm and on weekends and bank holidays from 10am to 5pm. Tickets are GBP 16 for adults and bookings can be made by phone via + 44 870 756 7070. The Yeoman Warders' tours last about an hour and begin every half hour.

Since we didn't have a lot of time to explore London, we decided to spend money on the open-top hop-on-hop-off bus tour. Valid for 24 hours, the 20 GBP ticket not only provided a guided tour of the city, it also included in its package up to 4 city walks, and a boat ride along the Thames.

We first decided to get off the bus at Westminster Abbey (described in a different review). After the Abbey, we hopped back on the bus, and hopped off again when at the meeting point for the Beatles Walk. The walk was really more of Rock and Roll Walk, because our very-knowledgeable tour guide did not only bring us to spots where important milestones in the history of the Beatles took place; he also brought us to places important for other rock stars as well: the place where Eric Clapton first performed publicly at the age of 16; the place where Jimi Hendrix performed "Sgt. Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club Band" with Paul in the audience, just two days after the record had been released; a studio where a number of famous rock stars had recorded some of the best rock songs ever (including some Beatles songs and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"), etcetera... The walk took about 2 hours, and we enjoyed speaking with our guide who was clearly a bona fide lover of rock and roll.

We completed the rest of our tour the following day. We started at the Thames, where we took a boat tour along the river, guided by a very funny guide. After that, we rushed back onto the bus and finished the remainder of the loop that we had missed the previous day. The guide gave thoughtful and sobering accounts of the Plague and the Great Fire of London as we entered the City of London.

On the whole, an open-top bus tour is an easy way to see the whole city if you don't have a lot of time. The quality of tour guides on the buses varies (our first guide was very good; the second seemed to be a bit bored by her job), however, so if you catch a bus with a good tour guide, you may want to stay on to listen to his entire commentary.

Big Bus Company tickets can be bought on the buses, by telephone (+ 44 20 7233 9533), at www.bigbus.co.uk or from the Big Bus Information Centre at 48 Buckingham Palace Road.

Westminster Abbey is, of course, a place of worship, but most tourists go there to look at the graves of the hundreds of famous people who are buried within its walls.

The first part of the abbey was mostly of royalty we didn't know, but there were a few interesting highlights, such as Oliver Cromwell's grave (me: "I'm surprised they allowed him to be buried at Westminster!"), and Mary of Tudor and Elizabeth I interred on opposite sides of a chapel (with a moving plaque on the floor commemorating all those who had died, on both sides, for their conscience and their faith during those violent times). After the bit where most of their tombs belonged to royalty, we arrived at the Poets' Corner, and we got a kick out of identifying the graves of various great writers: Robert Browning, Jane Austen, T. S. Eliot, Geoffrey Chaucer, etc. We also saw Sir Lawrence Olivier's grave. We stopped at an external garden where we took a short breather, then headed back to see more famous graves: Edmund Halley, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin... Near the exit, we lit a candle for the dead and saw the grave of the Unknown Soldier, adorned with flowers, and finally, the grave of Winston Churchill alongside a moving tribute to all those who had died for king and country in the wars.

Photography is not allowed in the Abbey. Its visiting hours are at www.westminster-abbey.org (it is closed to tourists some days when important events are happening). Admission for adults is GBP 10. Services are at 11am and 6:30 pm on Sundays (sung), and 5 pm on Wednesdays (said); there is Holy Communion at 8am everyday and 12:30 pm on weekdays. Matins are at 7:30 am on weedays, 8 am on Saturdays and Sundays, and 9 am on weekday Bank Holidays. Evensong is at 3pm on weekends and at 5 pm on weekdays except Wednesday. Telephone: +44 (207) 2225152.

After our Beatles Walk, we headed to Dominion Theatre, to watch "We Will Rock You," the musical with songs written by Queen. We had been able to get discounted tickets that morning from one of the many discounted-ticket sellers.

The musical was a blast. I had watched the musical before, in Las Vegas, but watching the original version made her see how much the US production had altered the original script to bring it to Las Vegas! (One of the key scenes of the musical is supposed to happen in Wembley Stadium; in the Las Vegas version, the scene was situated in in Graceland instead!).

We paid 30 GBP per ticket (inclusive of the booking fee). Tickets sold on the same day of the show are usually discounted.

To get to the Dominion Theatre, take the Tube at the Tottenham Court Road station. Performances are at 7:30pm from Monday to Saturday, with a 2:30pm matinée on Saturdays.